Datasheet

16 Chapter 1: Getting Familiar with AutoCAD
Starting a Drawing
What you do to start a new drawing in AutoCAD is a little different from what you do in
other programs, so let’s create a new file to see how it’s done:
1. From the Application menu, choose File

Close to close the current file. When the
message box appears asking you to save changes, click No. Notice that the toolbars
disappear and that the AutoCAD drawing window appears blank when no drawings
are open.
2. From the Quick Access toolbar, click the New tool to open the Select Template
dialog box.
3. Select the acad.dwt template file, and then click Open to open a blank drawing
window.
4. To give your new file a unique name, choose File

Save As from the Application
menu to open the Save Drawing As dialog box.
5. Enter My First Drawing. As you type, the name appears in the File Name text box.
By default, the file will be saved in the My Documents folder.
6. Click Save. You now have a file called My First Drawing.dwg, located in the My
Documents folder. Of course, your drawing doesn’t contain anything yet. You’ll
take care of that next.
The acad.dwt template file you selected in step 3 is really just an AutoCAD drawing
file that has been set up with standard settings. AutoCAD uses those settings to create a
new file. As you saw in the Select Template dialog box, you can choose from several such
templates.
The new file you just created shows a drawing area roughly 31 units wide by 13 units
high. The units can be inches, meters, or millimeters. You determine what the units
are equivalent to through the Drawing Units dialog box, which you will learn about in
Chapter 2.
The drawing area you’re presented with initially is your workspace, although you’re not
limited to the 75 by 45–unit area in any way. No visual clues indicate the size of the area, so
to check the area size for yourself, move the crosshair cursor to the upper-right corner of
the screen, and observe the value in the coordinate readout in the lower-left corner of the
AutoCAD window. This is the standard AutoCAD default drawing area for using the acad.
dwt drawing template for new drawings.
The coordinate readout won’t show exactly 75 units by 45 units, because the proportions of
your drawing area are not likely to be exactly 7.5 by 4.5. Factors such as the size and resolu-
tion of your display and the shape of the AutoCAD window affect the dimensions of the
drawing area.
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